And of course they had to buy Dragonair in the end
No, not true...they bought a struggling, bankrupt, poorly managed 3 narrow bodied aircraft operation from an inept owner (Ho), and transformed it into a real player.
They traded Dragonair to CNAC just before the handover in order to prevent the State Owned behemoth from swamping HKG post 1997.
They bought it back at a significant premium when CNAC were ordered to divest themselves of their airline interests...
Just the facts, m'aam, just the facts.